Pothole claims cost Derbyshire County Council £220,000

Derbyshire County Council has paid out more than £220,000 for damage to vehicles caused by potholes in the last three years.

A total of 1,833 claims were made against the authority between 2013 and 2016, with the total for successful claims standing at £222,796.

The figures have been released after a request by the RAC Foundation.

In 2015/16, a total of 624 claims were made against Derbyshire County Council, with 320 of those being successful. This led to the authority paying out a total of £75,517, slightly down on the 2014/15 total of £80, 447.

Nationally, UK drivers lodged more than 31,000 claims for pothole damage to their cars last year, costing councils nearly £2 million in payouts, according to the RAC Foundation.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “These figures are symptomatic of the inadequate funding available for local road maintenance.

“Year in, year out, the backlog of work on local roads is estimated to run to several billion pounds.

“A pitted road surface isn’t just a problem for motorists – for those on two wheels it can be life threatening.

“Just last week the Chancellor acknowledged that there had been decades of underfunding in the nation’s infrastructure and that he was keen to support targeted, value-for-money public investment. Providing the funds to fix our roads would be a great place to start and would show rapid results.”

In April this year, the government said it would give councils in England £50 million to repair nearly one million potholes on their road networks.